76 WHALING 



date this adventure took place is not fully ascertained, but it 

 is supposed to be not far from 1712. This event gave new life 

 to the business, for they immediately began with vessels of 

 about thirty tons to whale out in the 'deep,' as it was then 

 called to distinguish it from shore whaling. They fitted out 

 for cruises of about six weeks, carried a few hogsheads, enough 

 probably to contain the blubber of one whale, with which, after 

 obtaining it, they returned home. The owners then took charge 

 of the blubber, and tried out the oil, and immediately sent the 

 vessel out again. At the commencement of this mode of whal- 

 ing, it was found necessary to erect try-houses near the landing, 

 and a number were built on the beach a little south of the 

 wharves. North from these they erected small buildings, called 

 ware-houses, in which they put their whaling apparatus, and 

 other outfits."^ 



Thus Nantucket whalemen reached out and the industry 

 thrived. But during the French and Indian Wars the Islanders 

 learned the sad lesson that future wars were to drive home: war 

 at sea means loss to the whaling fleets. In 1755 and 1756 the 

 French burned six Nantucket whaling vessels with their car- 

 goes, and imprisoned their crews; and in subsequent years a 

 number of others fell into the hands of privateers. The loss 

 was not large, to be sure; but in proportion to the size of the 

 fleet, it was considerable. 



Many quaint, tragic tales have come down from those old 

 days of American whaling, preserved in the formal phrases of 

 dusty old legal documents. There was Dinah Coffin of Nan- 

 tucket, who petitioned the General Court, in 1724, for permission 

 to marry. On April 27, 1722, her husband, Elisha Coffin, had 

 sailed from Nantucket in a sloop bound on a whaling voyage of 

 a month or six weeks. Almost immediately after he had sailed, 

 a fierce storm had blown up, and the sloop and all hands had 

 disappeared. No word had ever come back from Elisha Coffin 

 or any of his shipmates. Of fighting whales, the colonial ad- 

 venturers got a notable experience in May, 1736, when two 

 boats from a whaling sloop commanded by Soloman Kenwick, 



iQbed Macy. History of Nantucket, p. 48. 



